Session 4

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Recommended reads and ​additional materials:

After each session we will post below a list of additional materials, exercises and bibliography. We will include additional tips and hints, which can help to broaden your perspective on Tantra, deepen your practice, help to eliminate errors and direct your tantric discipline at home. Sometimes we will include links to guided practises etc. If you have any questions then please contact us. 

Contents:
1. 12fold Lower Belly Breathing (changing stale Prana)
2. Mantra of Manjushri/Arapatsana Mantra (OM A RA PA TSA NA DHI DHI DHI)
 3. Pure and impure vision and tantric meditational deities
​4. Big Mind
​5. Dance (visualisation in pairs)
6. 4 Immeasurables
7. Further reading

1. 12fold Lower Belly Breathing (changing stale Prana)
This technique comes from Tibetan Buddhist Tantra and is included in Somatic Meditation (Robert teaches Somatic Meditation). Somatic Meditation is a system developed by dr Reginald Ray (tantric master) along with bodyworkers and therapists. You can find this technique in many of his audio programs (for example: 'Awakening the Body'). We've included it in our YouTube channel but only in Polish (below): ​

2. Mantra of Manjushri (Arapatsana Mantra) - OM A RA PA TSA NA DHIH DHIH DHIH (lub jedno DHIH).
The number of DHIHs at the end may vary. You can add just one DHI or many more. The syllable DHIH signifies "wisdom". The mantra itself is connected to deity of wisdom called Manjushri. In Buddhist Tantra Manjushri is considered to be a fully awakened Buddha (in traditional practises with a meditational deity tantrikas meditate on his form). We've said during the meeting that according to traditional tantra the mantra improves intelligence, memory and cognitive capacities but it also assists in having a nondual knowledge about reality. Those interested in art might look for various forms of Manjushri in Google Graphics.

You can find a professional recording of the mantra performed below:

 3. Pure and impure vision and tantric meditational deities
To put it briefly the pure vision according to tantrism is seeing things just as they are in their true nature - perfect. It also entails seeing them in nondual way. We can say that seeing in others enlightened / divine / nondual / perfect nature is pure vision, while getting stuck at the level of dual roles, patterns, filtering and projections is impure vision.
Tantra says that we visualise all the time. Our perception, which is conditioned by many tendencies, dictates how we see objects (i.e. optical illusions, Necker's cube and so on). It is conditioned by accepting certain things (that we desire and so on), rejecting others (we do not like etc.) or ignoring what seems not relevant to our likes and dislikes. According to Tantra that this filtering process is impure vision. In order to free oneself of conditioning, so as to experience everything unfiltered, direct, naked, nonconceptual and perfect as it is, Tantrika uses the visualisation process itself. Like in judo the energy of the oponent is used against him. Visualisations in Tantrik practises are a 'fake it until you make it' way of mimicking the pure vision or rather symbolically representing it. By using them an adept of Tantra gets closer to seeing through the conditioning. Visualising oneself as a tantric meditational deity is one of the core practises of most systems of Tantra practice. Such a deity represents nondual reality (for example Manjushri represents nondual wisdom). Thanks to embodying the deity a yogi stops seeing things as ordinary but starts seeing all of them as sacred, perfect and goes from seeing from a limited accepting-rejecting perspective to more and more being and experiencing himself/herself and the world in the state represented by the deity.

Buddhist Tantra classifies traditional tantric paths based on their approach to working with the deity. According to one such classifications (from the oldest schoold of Tibetan Tantra, which is called Nyingmapa) there are:

The Outer Tantras
Kriyatantra - deity here is visualised outside and treated as a sovereign who bestows empowerement and blessing while the practitioner is like a subject or servant. This system greatly emphasises ritual requisites, ritual purifciation and ablutions, proper diet and living in sync with astrological cycles (taking into account the lunar cycle and so on). 
Charyatantra / Ubhayatantra - combines ritual purification from Kriyatantra and yogic practice aimed at resting in the state of nondual gnosis from Yogatantra. It is a kind of intermediary form (literally Ubhaya means 'of both'). Deity here in essence is not different from the practitioner.
Yogatantra - deity here is like a friend and on the most advanced levels of practise the yogi itself embodies the deity. Overall Yogatantra is practice in two phases: creation stage where the yogi learns to visualise himself as the deity and completion stage, where with the aid of psychosomatic practises (with channels and chakras) he or she fully enters the state, which deity represents (so the visualisation of oneself being a deity is not just mental gymnastics or a kind of hallucination). 
The Inner Tantras (outside of Nyingma sometimes these are called Higher Yoga Tantra and are classified into Father Tantras, Mother Tantras and Nondual Tantras on the basis of whether male or female deities are emphasised more and which phase is more important).
Mahayoga - practitioner of Mahayoga recognises that all phenomena are enlightened from the very beginning and he gradually synchronises his body, energy and mind with this knowledge through a step by step visulisation of his dimension as a mandala of a given deity.
Anujoga - an Anuyoga adherent practises the two phases in a nongradual manner. He instanenously transforms into a deity with the aid of a specific vibration (seed syllable) and visualisation. The visualisation here is more about having a general idea or a feeling of being deity instead of gradual visualisation of all the symbolic details. Anuyoga is considered to be the highest system of tantra (transformation of one's vision and emotions). 
Atiyoga - also known as Dzogchen. In its pure form there is no transformation. Dzogchen uses a method called spontaneous selfliberation which can be done with very limited support of visualisation or even no visualisation at all. However Atiyoga is not considered Tantra (as it is not a path of transformation). 

As we have already explained during our course we employ Big Mind instead of traditional deity yoga, because the latter requires studying in details eastern symbolism and using precise, ritual initiation. Those interested in such practises (which we ourselves study and use) we refer to further reading and we recommend some teachers who transmit such knowledge and methods (some of them also via webcast): Garchen Rinpoche, Tenzin Wangyal, Lopon Ogyan Tenzin Rinpoche, Dalai Lama, Malcolm Smith or Lama Tsultrim Allione. 

4. Big Mind
Big Mind does not use mantras of seed syllables in the process but it resembles Anuyoga, because one using this method enters nondual state in an instanteous way and embodying it is mostly based on the felt sense.

We encourage practising this method in daily life. For example you can go into various dual voices (also with partner - you can embody various roles and consciously research their dynamic) or go into nondual voices. Meeting situations as a Big Heart might transform who we deal with life and other people.

Those interested in a broader work with the Big Mind method (working with more voices: dual and nondual ones; spending more time on each voice in a group process) we invite to participate in our one day workshop dedicated solely to the Big Mind method in Warsaw:
https://www.facebook.com/events/768523463579262/

Veronika (with the approval of the author of this method) and as a coach and therapist added improvements to the Big Mind workshop:
- movement and the change of position (original Big Mind works mostly at the level of talking while sitting on chairs)
- employing tibetan bowls and the gong

​5. Further reading:
Dennis Genpo Merzel Big Mind, Big Heart: Finding Your Way - the book written by the author of Big Mind. He tells the reader about the origins and the mechanics of the process and introduces most important voices
Genpo Lama Yeshe "Introduction to Tantra"  - a good read for those interested in some accessible book which introduces traditional tantra (with the deity yoga etc.)
Chogyal Namkhai Norbu "Brama do Nauk" - a half encyclopedia and half training program. It presents an overview of Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism and Dzogchen Buddhism from the perspective of a master of Dzogchen and Tibetan Buddhism and also a scientist (professor) who studied the history of these teachings. The book contains introductory, essential practises and basic elements of view and meditation of different levels of buddhist and tantric practice and is a wonderful (albeit a little demanding) introductory book for all who are interested in traditional Buddhist Tantra. Unfortunately the English version ("Gateway to the Teachings") will come out in 2021. 
Chogyam Trungpa "Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness" - it contains many information about different classes of Tantras, but it is written in a poetic language.
Reginald Ray "Indestructible Truth: The Living Spirituality of Tibetan Buddhism - book written from an academic perspective and also with the intent of popularising knowledge about Buddhist Tantra.