Mandala of Love
  • Home
  • Meditation
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • ‘Meditation’ April 2017
      • A ‘Mandala of Love’ approach to Meditation
      • Self-Inquiry – Familiarising ourselves with Consciousness
      • The Content of the Mind is Not Important
      • Non-Duality – Buddha, Jesus, and Plato
      • Objectivity – Meditation and Thinking
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Jun 2017
      • René Descartes’ Error
      • Mindfulness – The Buddha’s ‘Remembering’ practice
      • Egoic consciousness – Divided against itself
      • Nurturing an Authentic Self
      • The Four Brahmavihāras – Four Attitudes of Consciousness
      • Mettā – Consciousness as Loving-Kindness
      • The Ethical and Relational Nature of Consciousness
      • The Brahmavihāras – the Soul’s Moral Compass
    • ‘Meditation’ Jul-Aug 2017
      • Upekṣā – Equanimity – Touching the Cosmic Stillness
      • Resting the Mental Body in the Field of Consciousness
      • The Mirror of Consciousness and the Mirror of Narcissism
      • The Hara – the Mysterious Second Chakra
      • The ‘Hell Realms’ – Inner Victims and Inner Persecutors
      • Muditā – Sympathetic Joy – A Sense of Wonder
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2017
      • Sympathetic Joy – an Attitude and an Energetic State
      • Zen and the Art of Human Life
      • Zazen – Just Sitting – Resting as Consciousness
      • Plato’s Cave Revisited
      • The Yin and Yang of Embodied Consciousness
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2017
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Mettā – Living as Love and Contentment
      • Mettā – Healing the Egoic Shadow of Love
      • The Preta Realm – Deprivation, Despair, and Addiction
    • ‘Meditation’ Jan-Apr 2018
      • Flowing with the Currents of Feeling – Psychological Parts
      • Mettā – Being Unconditionally Present with Feeling
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • Feminine and Masculine – Energy and Presence
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Aug 2018
      • The Yin and Yang of Love and Compassion
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
      • The Mandala and the Stupa
      • The Somatic Anatomy of the Energy Bodies
      • The Mandala of the Four Brahmavihāras
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2018
      • Consciousness, Meditation and the Four Qualia
      • The Beneficial Life Energy of Needs
      • Life Energies of Presence and Connection
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2018
      • Compassion and the All-Accomplishing Wisdom
    • ‘Meditation’ 2019 Jan-Oct
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari – Luminous Space
    • Meditation Guidance Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
  • 5 Wisdoms
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Skandhas Intro
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari / White Tara – Luminous Space
      • The Five Skandhas – Dakini Wisdom
      • The Five Skandhas – the Cognitive-Perceptual Components
    • Rūpa Skandha
      • Part 1: Thinking and Wisdom
      • Part 2: The Mirror-Like Wisdom
      • Part 3: The Body
    • Vedanā Skandha
    • Samjñā Skandha
    • Samskāras Skandha
    • Vijñāna Skandha
  • 10 Buddhas
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
    • 10 Buddhas – Introduction
      • Part 1: Three Yānas / Three Myths
      • Part 2: Ten Dharmic Principles
      • Part 3: Resting as Consciousness
      • Part 4: Integration and Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Integration
      • Part 5: Pandaravārsini
      • Part 6: Vajrasattva-Akshobya
      • Part 7: The Somatic Body-Mind
    • 10 Buddhas – Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Death
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Rebirth
  • Buddhism
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Hui Neng and the Mirror-Like Wisdom – A Zen Story
    • ‘Meditation’ Series Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
  • NVC/Focusing
    • Buddhism and Focusing
      • Part 1 – Eugene Gendlin’s ‘Clear Space’ and the Brahmavihāras
    • Nonviolent Communication (NVC) – Mandala Wisdom
    • Mandala Innerwork and NVC Self-Empathy
    • NVC/Focusing-related articles in other categories
      • Summaries of these articles
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
  • Jung/MBTI
  • Book
    • William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’
    • Introduction to the Mandala of Love book blog
    • The Cross and the Mandala
    • Carl Jung’s Psychology of the Archetypes
    • The Mandala as the Landscape of the Soul
    • Buddhas and Bodhisattvas – Archetypes of Consciousness
    • Jung’s Phenomenology of the Soul
    • Egoic Consciousness and its Shadow
  • Home
  • Meditation
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • ‘Meditation’ April 2017
      • A ‘Mandala of Love’ approach to Meditation
      • Self-Inquiry – Familiarising ourselves with Consciousness
      • The Content of the Mind is Not Important
      • Non-Duality – Buddha, Jesus, and Plato
      • Objectivity – Meditation and Thinking
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Jun 2017
      • René Descartes’ Error
      • Mindfulness – The Buddha’s ‘Remembering’ practice
      • Egoic consciousness – Divided against itself
      • Nurturing an Authentic Self
      • The Four Brahmavihāras – Four Attitudes of Consciousness
      • Mettā – Consciousness as Loving-Kindness
      • The Ethical and Relational Nature of Consciousness
      • The Brahmavihāras – the Soul’s Moral Compass
    • ‘Meditation’ Jul-Aug 2017
      • Upekṣā – Equanimity – Touching the Cosmic Stillness
      • Resting the Mental Body in the Field of Consciousness
      • The Mirror of Consciousness and the Mirror of Narcissism
      • The Hara – the Mysterious Second Chakra
      • The ‘Hell Realms’ – Inner Victims and Inner Persecutors
      • Muditā – Sympathetic Joy – A Sense of Wonder
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2017
      • Sympathetic Joy – an Attitude and an Energetic State
      • Zen and the Art of Human Life
      • Zazen – Just Sitting – Resting as Consciousness
      • Plato’s Cave Revisited
      • The Yin and Yang of Embodied Consciousness
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2017
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Mettā – Living as Love and Contentment
      • Mettā – Healing the Egoic Shadow of Love
      • The Preta Realm – Deprivation, Despair, and Addiction
    • ‘Meditation’ Jan-Apr 2018
      • Flowing with the Currents of Feeling – Psychological Parts
      • Mettā – Being Unconditionally Present with Feeling
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • Feminine and Masculine – Energy and Presence
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Aug 2018
      • The Yin and Yang of Love and Compassion
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
      • The Mandala and the Stupa
      • The Somatic Anatomy of the Energy Bodies
      • The Mandala of the Four Brahmavihāras
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2018
      • Consciousness, Meditation and the Four Qualia
      • The Beneficial Life Energy of Needs
      • Life Energies of Presence and Connection
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2018
      • Compassion and the All-Accomplishing Wisdom
    • ‘Meditation’ 2019 Jan-Oct
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari – Luminous Space
    • Meditation Guidance Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
  • 5 Wisdoms
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Skandhas Intro
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari / White Tara – Luminous Space
      • The Five Skandhas – Dakini Wisdom
      • The Five Skandhas – the Cognitive-Perceptual Components
    • Rūpa Skandha
      • Part 1: Thinking and Wisdom
      • Part 2: The Mirror-Like Wisdom
      • Part 3: The Body
    • Vedanā Skandha
    • Samjñā Skandha
    • Samskāras Skandha
    • Vijñāna Skandha
  • 10 Buddhas
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
    • 10 Buddhas – Introduction
      • Part 1: Three Yānas / Three Myths
      • Part 2: Ten Dharmic Principles
      • Part 3: Resting as Consciousness
      • Part 4: Integration and Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Integration
      • Part 5: Pandaravārsini
      • Part 6: Vajrasattva-Akshobya
      • Part 7: The Somatic Body-Mind
    • 10 Buddhas – Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Death
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Rebirth
  • Buddhism
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Hui Neng and the Mirror-Like Wisdom – A Zen Story
    • ‘Meditation’ Series Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
  • NVC/Focusing
    • Buddhism and Focusing
      • Part 1 – Eugene Gendlin’s ‘Clear Space’ and the Brahmavihāras
    • Nonviolent Communication (NVC) – Mandala Wisdom
    • Mandala Innerwork and NVC Self-Empathy
    • NVC/Focusing-related articles in other categories
      • Summaries of these articles
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
  • Jung/MBTI
  • Book
    • William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’
    • Introduction to the Mandala of Love book blog
    • The Cross and the Mandala
    • Carl Jung’s Psychology of the Archetypes
    • The Mandala as the Landscape of the Soul
    • Buddhas and Bodhisattvas – Archetypes of Consciousness
    • Jung’s Phenomenology of the Soul
    • Egoic Consciousness and its Shadow
Mandala of Love
  • Home
  • Meditation
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • ‘Meditation’ April 2017
      • A ‘Mandala of Love’ approach to Meditation
      • Self-Inquiry – Familiarising ourselves with Consciousness
      • The Content of the Mind is Not Important
      • Non-Duality – Buddha, Jesus, and Plato
      • Objectivity – Meditation and Thinking
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Jun 2017
      • René Descartes’ Error
      • Mindfulness – The Buddha’s ‘Remembering’ practice
      • Egoic consciousness – Divided against itself
      • Nurturing an Authentic Self
      • The Four Brahmavihāras – Four Attitudes of Consciousness
      • Mettā – Consciousness as Loving-Kindness
      • The Ethical and Relational Nature of Consciousness
      • The Brahmavihāras – the Soul’s Moral Compass
    • ‘Meditation’ Jul-Aug 2017
      • Upekṣā – Equanimity – Touching the Cosmic Stillness
      • Resting the Mental Body in the Field of Consciousness
      • The Mirror of Consciousness and the Mirror of Narcissism
      • The Hara – the Mysterious Second Chakra
      • The ‘Hell Realms’ – Inner Victims and Inner Persecutors
      • Muditā – Sympathetic Joy – A Sense of Wonder
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2017
      • Sympathetic Joy – an Attitude and an Energetic State
      • Zen and the Art of Human Life
      • Zazen – Just Sitting – Resting as Consciousness
      • Plato’s Cave Revisited
      • The Yin and Yang of Embodied Consciousness
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2017
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Mettā – Living as Love and Contentment
      • Mettā – Healing the Egoic Shadow of Love
      • The Preta Realm – Deprivation, Despair, and Addiction
    • ‘Meditation’ Jan-Apr 2018
      • Flowing with the Currents of Feeling – Psychological Parts
      • Mettā – Being Unconditionally Present with Feeling
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • Feminine and Masculine – Energy and Presence
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Aug 2018
      • The Yin and Yang of Love and Compassion
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
      • The Mandala and the Stupa
      • The Somatic Anatomy of the Energy Bodies
      • The Mandala of the Four Brahmavihāras
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2018
      • Consciousness, Meditation and the Four Qualia
      • The Beneficial Life Energy of Needs
      • Life Energies of Presence and Connection
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2018
      • Compassion and the All-Accomplishing Wisdom
    • ‘Meditation’ 2019 Jan-Oct
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari – Luminous Space
    • Meditation Guidance Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
  • 5 Wisdoms
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Skandhas Intro
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari / White Tara – Luminous Space
      • The Five Skandhas – Dakini Wisdom
      • The Five Skandhas – the Cognitive-Perceptual Components
    • Rūpa Skandha
      • Part 1: Thinking and Wisdom
      • Part 2: The Mirror-Like Wisdom
      • Part 3: The Body
    • Vedanā Skandha
    • Samjñā Skandha
    • Samskāras Skandha
    • Vijñāna Skandha
  • 10 Buddhas
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
    • 10 Buddhas – Introduction
      • Part 1: Three Yānas / Three Myths
      • Part 2: Ten Dharmic Principles
      • Part 3: Resting as Consciousness
      • Part 4: Integration and Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Integration
      • Part 5: Pandaravārsini
      • Part 6: Vajrasattva-Akshobya
      • Part 7: The Somatic Body-Mind
    • 10 Buddhas – Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Death
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Rebirth
  • Buddhism
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Hui Neng and the Mirror-Like Wisdom – A Zen Story
    • ‘Meditation’ Series Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
  • NVC/Focusing
    • Buddhism and Focusing
      • Part 1 – Eugene Gendlin’s ‘Clear Space’ and the Brahmavihāras
    • Nonviolent Communication (NVC) – Mandala Wisdom
    • Mandala Innerwork and NVC Self-Empathy
    • NVC/Focusing-related articles in other categories
      • Summaries of these articles
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
  • Jung/MBTI
  • Book
    • William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’
    • Introduction to the Mandala of Love book blog
    • The Cross and the Mandala
    • Carl Jung’s Psychology of the Archetypes
    • The Mandala as the Landscape of the Soul
    • Buddhas and Bodhisattvas – Archetypes of Consciousness
    • Jung’s Phenomenology of the Soul
    • Egoic Consciousness and its Shadow
  • Home
  • Meditation
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • ‘Meditation’ April 2017
      • A ‘Mandala of Love’ approach to Meditation
      • Self-Inquiry – Familiarising ourselves with Consciousness
      • The Content of the Mind is Not Important
      • Non-Duality – Buddha, Jesus, and Plato
      • Objectivity – Meditation and Thinking
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Jun 2017
      • René Descartes’ Error
      • Mindfulness – The Buddha’s ‘Remembering’ practice
      • Egoic consciousness – Divided against itself
      • Nurturing an Authentic Self
      • The Four Brahmavihāras – Four Attitudes of Consciousness
      • Mettā – Consciousness as Loving-Kindness
      • The Ethical and Relational Nature of Consciousness
      • The Brahmavihāras – the Soul’s Moral Compass
    • ‘Meditation’ Jul-Aug 2017
      • Upekṣā – Equanimity – Touching the Cosmic Stillness
      • Resting the Mental Body in the Field of Consciousness
      • The Mirror of Consciousness and the Mirror of Narcissism
      • The Hara – the Mysterious Second Chakra
      • The ‘Hell Realms’ – Inner Victims and Inner Persecutors
      • Muditā – Sympathetic Joy – A Sense of Wonder
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2017
      • Sympathetic Joy – an Attitude and an Energetic State
      • Zen and the Art of Human Life
      • Zazen – Just Sitting – Resting as Consciousness
      • Plato’s Cave Revisited
      • The Yin and Yang of Embodied Consciousness
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2017
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Mettā – Living as Love and Contentment
      • Mettā – Healing the Egoic Shadow of Love
      • The Preta Realm – Deprivation, Despair, and Addiction
    • ‘Meditation’ Jan-Apr 2018
      • Flowing with the Currents of Feeling – Psychological Parts
      • Mettā – Being Unconditionally Present with Feeling
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • Feminine and Masculine – Energy and Presence
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Aug 2018
      • The Yin and Yang of Love and Compassion
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
      • The Mandala and the Stupa
      • The Somatic Anatomy of the Energy Bodies
      • The Mandala of the Four Brahmavihāras
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2018
      • Consciousness, Meditation and the Four Qualia
      • The Beneficial Life Energy of Needs
      • Life Energies of Presence and Connection
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2018
      • Compassion and the All-Accomplishing Wisdom
    • ‘Meditation’ 2019 Jan-Oct
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari – Luminous Space
    • Meditation Guidance Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
  • 5 Wisdoms
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Skandhas Intro
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari / White Tara – Luminous Space
      • The Five Skandhas – Dakini Wisdom
      • The Five Skandhas – the Cognitive-Perceptual Components
    • Rūpa Skandha
      • Part 1: Thinking and Wisdom
      • Part 2: The Mirror-Like Wisdom
      • Part 3: The Body
    • Vedanā Skandha
    • Samjñā Skandha
    • Samskāras Skandha
    • Vijñāna Skandha
  • 10 Buddhas
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
    • 10 Buddhas – Introduction
      • Part 1: Three Yānas / Three Myths
      • Part 2: Ten Dharmic Principles
      • Part 3: Resting as Consciousness
      • Part 4: Integration and Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Integration
      • Part 5: Pandaravārsini
      • Part 6: Vajrasattva-Akshobya
      • Part 7: The Somatic Body-Mind
    • 10 Buddhas – Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Death
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Rebirth
  • Buddhism
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Hui Neng and the Mirror-Like Wisdom – A Zen Story
    • ‘Meditation’ Series Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
  • NVC/Focusing
    • Buddhism and Focusing
      • Part 1 – Eugene Gendlin’s ‘Clear Space’ and the Brahmavihāras
    • Nonviolent Communication (NVC) – Mandala Wisdom
    • Mandala Innerwork and NVC Self-Empathy
    • NVC/Focusing-related articles in other categories
      • Summaries of these articles
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
  • Jung/MBTI
  • Book
    • William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’
    • Introduction to the Mandala of Love book blog
    • The Cross and the Mandala
    • Carl Jung’s Psychology of the Archetypes
    • The Mandala as the Landscape of the Soul
    • Buddhas and Bodhisattvas – Archetypes of Consciousness
    • Jung’s Phenomenology of the Soul
    • Egoic Consciousness and its Shadow

10 Buddhas – Integration

The Ten Archetypal Buddhas of the Mandala – Part 7: The Somatic Body-Mind

 

 

This article is the seventh of fifteen articles inspired by the central five verses of Padmasambhava’s ‘Inspiration-Prayer for Deliverance from the Dangerous Pathway of the Bardo’, in which I shall be aiming to show meditators how each one of the ten deities of the Dharmadhātu Mandala can be felt in the fields of the body as profound suprapersonal sources of somatic healing and wisdom. Those who read the whole series of articles – and it is intended that these articles should be read in sequence – will be able to incorporate these reflections into their meditation practice in a systematic way. The first article in the series can be found here; brief summaries of all the articles can be found here; you can read the previous article in the series here; and you can read the five verses here.

In these articles, I am choosing once again to use a non-traditional terminology for talking about the process of transformation that the Dharmadhātu Mandala invites us to engage in. Those who have read the previous articles on this series may recognise Integration, Positive Emotion, Spiritual Death and Spiritual Rebirth as the stages of a system of meditative practice that was suggested by Sangharakshita in the 1970s. This being the case, I need to point out once again, that while I find that these four general stages fit my experience very well indeed, the detail of my own approach to these stages of meditation practice is not based on any detailed exposition by Sangharakshita, but on my own explorations.

I should also make it clear that what I am presenting here does not represent the consensus within the global Triratna Buddhist Community regarding Sangharakshita’s ‘System of Practice’ – far from it. My intention is only to share my own experience, and to share my own somewhat personal and perhaps idiosyncratic reflections. My hope is that others will find my exploration of that four-fold conceptual frame of reference to be meaningful and useful, and will be stimulated to engage in their own meditative enquiry into the profound spiritual psychology of the Dharmadhātu mandala.

 

This article was originally written as the first part of a longer article on the female Buddha Māmaki, but I have chosen to present it as a separate article, and as one which will hopefully serve as an introduction to that article. In it, I hope to provide a recapitulation of key understandings from previous articles in the series, and to further introduce the notion of the somatic, and the idea that meditation is an experience of, not mind, but body-mind – these being foundational conceptualisations for the article on Māmaki that follows. By talking of mind as body-mind, I mean, not an integration of two separate elements – mind and body – but an acknowledgement of the extent to which mind and body must be regarded as inherently integrated in the practice of meditation. So, while meditation can usefully be thought of, at least in the beginning stages, as an integration of mind and body – of ‘bringing the mind home to the body’, as Thich Nhat Hahn used to say  – I am interested in a deeper integration, in the sense of a bringing into full awareness, of the five already integrated body-mind components, which Buddhist tradition calls the five skandhas. By way of introduction to the article on Māmaki, I shall, in this article, be reflecting on the vedanā skandha in particular – the skandha of ‘internal’ and ‘external’ Sensing, Sensation and Embodiment.

A Comprehensive Non-Dual Archetypal Psychology

In this series of articles, I have set out to describe the ten archetypal Buddhas of the Dharmadhātu Mandala – the mandala of the Five Wisdoms – and to present them as personifications of an interrelated constellation of Dharmic principles that together form a comprehensive non-dual psychology. These Dharmic principles can be viewed as stages in a transformation process – a transformation process that leads not just to Insight, and to the release of self-view (which we can call Spiritual Death); but to our embodiment of the transcendent Bodhisattva principle (a stage which we can call Spiritual Rebirth), through the release of the energetic residues of the egoic mind, which Buddhist tradition calls the kleshas.

We can characterise the process of realisation that we call Enlightenment as having four stages – Integration, Positive Emotion, Spiritual Death and Spiritual Rebirth – and we can approach each of these four stages through five meditative contemplations, using the Five Wisdoms Mandala as our guide. Each of the four stages engages with the Five Wisdoms at a higher level than the last. They are are like four octaves – the subsequent stages resonating with the earlier ones, and each expressing a higher and more comprehensive level of transformation and wisdom than the last. While it is true to say that embodiment of Consciousness characterised by Positive Emotion requires the foundation of mental and emotional stability such as is developed in the Integration stage, there is also however, a sense in which these two different familiarisation processes can progress in parallel. I shall be talking more about this below.

The most obvious division of the four stages is into the first two and the last two. There is however, a particularly strong resonance between the Integration and Spiritual Death stages (first and third), and between the Positive Emotion and Spiritual Rebirth stages (second and fourth). This means that our practice in the Integration stage, and our deepening connection with the five receptive ‘Integration’ Buddhas (that we we are currently studying), is likely to also produce significant insights into the impersonal nature of mind (Spiritual Death). Similarly, a deep practice of the Positive Emotion stage, and our deepening connection with the five expansive ‘Positive Emotion’ Buddhas, is likely to propel us into that profoundly and naturally altruistic way of living our embodiment of Consciousness, which the Buddhist tradition speaks of in terms of the Bodhicitta – the emergence of the Bodhisattva archetype as the guiding principle of our being (Spiritual Rebirth).

What I am presenting here is clearly not an ego-psychology – in which an heroic and narcissistic egoic self makes vain attempts at transcendence by trying to appropriate divine powers to itself. Rather it is a Buddhist archetypal psychology, in which the humble and reverent egoic self of the Mahayana Buddhist practitioner seeks to know, familiarise themselves with, and surrender to, the benevolent forces of the Transcendental – the archetypal powers that are inherent in Consciousness and organised as a mandala of Five Wisdoms.

The Brahmavihāras – Self-Regarding and Other-Regarding

The egoic mind has tendencies which we can characterised in terms of energetic dis-integration and energetic contraction, and the practice of meditation, or resting as Consciousness, leads to the opposite tendencies – Integration being the opposite of energetic dis-integration, and Positive Emotion being the opposite of energetic contraction. One way in which this distinction that I am making, between Integration and Positive Emotion can be understood, is in terms of the brahmavihāras (Equanimity, Loving Kindness, Compassion, and Appreciative Joy) which can be either self-regarding or other-regarding – either energetically receptive or energetically expansive.

Continue reading

June 18, 2022

The Ten Archetypal Buddhas of the Mandala – Part 6: Vajrasattva-Akshobya

 

 

This article is the sixth of fifteen articles inspired by the central five verses of the ‘Inspiration-Prayer for Deliverance from the Dangerous Pathway of the Bardo’, in which I shall be aiming to show meditators how each one of the ten deities of the Dharmadhātu Mandala can be felt in the fields of the body as profound suprapersonal sources of somatic healing and wisdom. Those who read the whole series of articles – and it is intended that these articles should be read in sequence – will be able to incorporate these reflections into their meditation practice in a systematic way. The first article in the series can be found here; brief summaries of all the articles can be found here; and you can read the five verses here.

 

The Mandala of ‘Receptive’ Deities Continued

This series of articles is essentially a systematic description of the ten deities of the Dharmadhātu mandala, and in this article I shall be going one step deeper into what I have chosen to call the mandala of the five ‘receptive’ deities. This division of the ten deities into two groups – five ‘yin’, or ‘receptive’, deities, and five ‘yang’, or ‘expansive’ ones – is not a traditional formulation as far as I know, though it has several parallels in the traditional teachings. I feel very motivated to share it however, because I have found it to be such a powerful framework in my own meditation practice. It is my hope that readers will wish to experiment with meditating systematically on the somatic resonance of each of these deities as I have done. While you may wish to simply meditate on the deities as a ‘meditation cycle’, as I initially did, I hope to be able to demonstrate that these deities are best approached in pairs – since the pairs of Dharmic principles that are behind the west-east and south-north pairs of deities, represent profound spiritual oppositions that must be reconciled and integrated if we are to fully embody the energies of the Five Wisdoms.

 

 

The two-stage model that I have adopted (meditating on the ‘receptive’ Dharmic principles first, followed by the ‘expansive’ ones) correspond to the two initial stages – ‘Integration’ and ‘Positive Emotion’ – in the ‘System of Meditation Practice’ that was first proposed by Sangharakshita in the 1970s. The five deities in the first group, which we are currently investigating, are ‘receptive’ in that they are associated with ‘yin’ ,or ‘receptive’, energies in the somatic anatomy of the body, and because of this can serve to create a foundation of psychological integration in the early stages of meditation practice. They represent five key Dharmic principles, in the necessarily more introverted and self-empathetic process of our initial self-healing, and of gaining familiarity with the experience of ‘resting as’ embodied Consciousness.

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August 15, 2020

The Ten Archetypal Buddhas of the Mandala – Part 5: Pandaravārsini

 

 

This article is the fifth of fifteen articles inspired by the ‘Inspiration-Prayer for Deliverance from the Dangerous Pathway of the Bardo’, in which I shall be aiming to show meditators how each one of the ten deities of the Dharmadhātu Mandala can be felt in the fields of the body as profound suprapersonal sources of somatic healing and wisdom. Those who read the whole series of articles – and it is intended that these articles should be read in sequence – will be able to incorporate these reflections into their meditation practice in a systematic way. The first article in the series can be found here; brief summaries of all the articles can be found here; and you can read the five verses here.

I offer these reflections without any claim to the authority of any particular tradition, or school of thought. I am adding my own personal and idiosyncratic commentary to the other commentaries that are available on the Five Wisdoms, and on the archetypal Buddhas of the Dharmadhātu Mandala, only because I believe passionately in the preciousness of this information. I cannot help feeling that there should be much more engagement with this knowledge than is evidenced on the Internet – much more discussion, reflection, contemplation and meditative self-enquiry which takes this primordial mandala as the integrated whole that it is. I sincerely hope that the thoughts that I am sharing will be supportive of this work, and supportive of those who share my love of the mandala wisdom.

In this article, I make reference to the five-fold ‘System of Practice’, that has been used, within the Triratna Buddhist Community, as a framework for thinking about the dimensions of meditation practice and the Dharma life more generally. Sangharakshita’s model originally identified Integration, Positive Emotion, Spiritual Death (i.e. Insight), and Spiritual Rebirth, as four key stages. To these four, a fifth component – Receptivity – was later added – usually as a third ‘stage’. While I am in complete agreement regarding the importance of receptivity and the need for its inclusion in the model, but I do not agree with the addition of it as an additional stage. In my own experience Receptivity is integral to the foundational Integration stage – and therefore to all the subsequent stages. The placement of Receptivity third in a series of five stages, does however reflect the reality that meditators generally come to an appreciation of the importance of Receptivity after they have been engaged with the goals of Integration and Positive Emotion for some time. It certainly fits my experience that a reframing of meditation through an emphasis on Receptivity is necessary for the sort of deepening of practice that is necessary for the emergence of the subsequent stages of Spiritual Death (Insight) and Spiritual Rebirth (Bodhicitta).

I need to acknowledge, and indeed emphasise, that where I have suggested, in these articles, that Receptivity should be given greater primacy, and have proposed that five of the ten deities can be considered to embody Receptivity are particularly supportive of the initial ‘Integration’ phase (and that the other five are more ‘expansive’ can strongly support us during the subsequent ‘Positive Emotion’ stage), this is an observation from my own explorations, and certainly goes beyond the standard interpretation of Sangharakshita’s model. I do not however, believe my suggestions are in conflict with Sangharakshita’s emphasis. I prefer to think of my ideas as a respectful engagement with his; as building on the foundation that his work has given us; as affirming the value of his original four-fold model; and as a tentative contribution to the process by which the Triratna meditation practice model is being forged in the furnace of experience.

 

The Mandala of Receptive Deities

In my last article (here), I spoke about the way in which the ten deities of the mandala fall into two groups of five. In the first of these two groups there are three female Buddhas and two male Buddhas, but all of them can be characterised as more ‘yin’, or ‘receptive’ in their energy as they are experienced in meditation. In the second group there are three male Buddhas and two female Buddhas, but all of them can be characterised as more ‘yang’, or ‘expansive’ in their energy as they are experienced in meditation. In the next five articles, I shall be talking about the first group of five deities – the ‘yin’, or ‘receptive’ group of deities – which are shown below. I shall starting with the deities of the mandala quadrants and finishing with White Tāra, in the centre.

 

 

I have chosen to start, in this article, with an exploration of the figure of Pandaravārsini; with the Discriminating Wisdom; and with the Dharmic principle that I have come to call ‘Uncaused Happiness’. It will not be possible to separate Pandaravārsini and the experience she represents, from Amitābha and the experience that he represents, but my focus will be on Pandaravārsini. I hope to show that for meditators, she is of enormous importance for our healing of the klesha of rāga, or ‘craving’, which is one of our greatest obstacles to realisation. More than this, because she represents the essence of our capacity to truly love ourselves, she can be regarded as the source of our capacity for emotional self-healing through meditation practice.

The Samjñā Skandha, the Klesha of Craving (rāga), and the Preta Realms

When, through craving, I wander in samsara,
on the luminous light-path of Discriminating Wisdom,
may Blessed Amitābha go before me,
and Pandaravārsini behind me;
help me to cross the bardo’s dangerous pathway,
and bring me to the perfect buddha state.

The five verses in the ‘Inspiration-Prayer for Deliverance from the Dangerous Pathway of the Bardo’ take us clockwise around the mandala in the traditional way, starting in the centre and then the eastern quadrant. In this exploration, I shall be taking us on a different journey – a journey that aims to explore and embrace the hidden polarities and dynamic tensions within the mandala structure. We shall be starting in the western quadrant with the red light-path of the ’empty’ sanjñā skandha and the Discriminating Wisdom, which leads us away from the egoic reactivity of the Preta Realm and towards the emotionally nourishing influence of Pandaravārsini and Amitābha. Only then will we move across to the eastern quadrant to look at the blue light-path of the ’empty’ rūpa skandha and the Mirror-Like Wisdom, which leads us away from the Hell Realms, and towards the peace and mental clarity of Vajrasattva and Buddha-Locana.

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July 15, 2020
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