At the recent Western Canada Dharma Celebration in Vancouver, Gen-la Dekyong explained self-generating as a Buddha as being like switching labels: You take the label "I" off yourself and stick it on, say, Medicine Buddha. Then you strongly think, "I am Medicine Buddha," and forget entirely about that old ordinary self. (Because we use lanyards with our nametags for festivals and celebrations, I also imagined it as taking my lanyard from around my neck and putting it on Medicine Buddha. The analogy isn't as good, but it amused me.)
On retreat I'm getting a feel for that switch when I imagine myself as Buddha Heruka. It reminded me of how it feels when I try to exchange self with other. I'd forgotten this part, but in Eight Steps to Happiness (which, by the way, is now available as an ebook), Geshe-la explains that Tantric self-generation is indeed a form of exchanging self with other: "Those who are skilled in Secret Mantra, or Tantra, have a profound experience of exchanging self with others. In the Tantric practice of self-generation, we exchange our previous self with that of a Tantric Buddha."
Of course, exchanging self with others is about changing your object of cherishing from yourself to others, whereas self-generation is about changing your object of identification - technically, your basis of imputation - from your ordinary self to an extraordinary being. But having that flexible sense of yourself - loosening up your idea of who you are and who you can be - is great mental training and brings nothing but benefit to ourselves and others, now and in the future.
It's like an upgrade, an upgrade to a first-class body and mind. I trade in this body and mind - painful, limited, destined to fall apart and decay - for a shiny, new mind and body, which never give rise to pain, have great ability to benefit others, and last forever.
In Eight Steps to Happiness Geshe-la says "'Self' and 'other' are relative terms, rather like 'this mountain' and 'that mountain ... 'This' and 'that' therefore depend upon our point of reference. This is also true of self and other. By climbing down the mountain of self, it is possible to ascend the mountain of other, and thereby cherish others as much as we presently cherish ourself."
Saturday, January 28, 2012
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There is one significant difference between exchanging self with others and self-generation: when you self-generate, you dissolve your entire impure world into emptiness first.
ReplyDeleteThe question came up in ITTP when we studied Shantideva’s chapter on exchanging self with others—probably 2004 or 2005: can we self-generate by simply imputing our I on a Buddha, in the same way that Shantideva teaches exchanging self with others by imputing your I on others’ bodies? Answer: no, because a qualified self-generation has to include dissolving everything into emptiness.
It’s still a good analogy, though.
Buddhas have fully accomplished exchanging self with others, so when we impute ourself on Buddha we are also exchanging our self with others. In the third bringing, we eve visualize this happening.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm afraid I disagree just a little with that previous comment -- to complete the exchange of self and others, we also need to meditate on our own and others' emptiness.
Luna, I think there is no disagreement, but I may not have been clear.
ReplyDeleteThe key thing is the question of dissolving *all* phenomena into emptiness. I don’t think it’s common to do that in a meditation on exchanging self with others, but my limited understanding is that it is essential to a meditation on self-generation.
Hmmm, I take your point, you cannot even get started on self-generation without dissolving everything into emptiness, whereas you can do a simple version of exchanging. But I think we do need to dissolve everything into emptiness to complete the practice of exchanging. In any event, if you dissolve yourself and other people, you may as well go and dissolve all phenomena as well as all persons :-)
DeleteThe reason exchanging is part of the wisdom lineage of Shantideva is because it is the other side of the coin from the wisdom realizing emptiness.
Certainly it does no harm to dissolve everything into emptiness and then reimpute ourself on others (as well as on all enlightened beings.) I find that works very well, anyway.
Thank you both for your comments. I feel like I am getting to overhear Teachers at International Teaching Training Program.
ReplyDeleteI am not a teacher or a scholar, so it is reassuring to know that someone will point out an error when one appears here. Note that this blog is basically an online journal - the musings of a practitioner - which also has prayer requests and occasional health updates. It is like talking to Sangha friends casually - please do not assume that everything here is correct.